1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an improved data processing system and in particular to a method and apparatus for processing data. Still more particularly, the invention relates to using monitoring tokens to disable byte code inserted probes associated with transactions in a data processing system.
2. Description of the Related Art
A key task in system administration is to monitor the performance and availability of software applications, including those that may spread across multiple physical systems involving multiple physical resources. Typically, probes perform monitoring. Probes may also be used to modify a software application or perform operations in addition to the application's regular operations. Probes are programs for monitoring or otherwise modifying the primary application. However, the use of probes causes some run-time performance overhead on the primary software application, which may cause the primary software application to run more slowly. In view of the fact that often not all probes need be active at once, it is desirable to provide a control mechanism to control whether one or more probes are active.
A current method for controlling probes is to use instrumentation technologies, such as just in time instrumentation, to enable or disable all probes. In addition, a token may be used to control how individual probes are active with respect to the primary software application. An example of a token and its use in transaction monitoring may be found in our U.S. application Ser. No. 10/971,472, filed Oct. 22, 2004, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
However, current methods of controlling probes still require resource overhead that may slow the primary application or otherwise reduce its performance. Resource overhead is the amount of resources required by a data processing system to perform a task, such as to execute a primary application or execute a probe. Thus, it would be advantageous to have a method, apparatus, and data processing system for further reducing the resource overhead required to implement a set of probes with respect to a primary application.